Spidey88

Re: Predators: who else found the 'Easter Egg'? I noticed that little tidbit in Predators a little while ago - quite amusing.

Re: Changing to Heroic identity Bonedaddy: Actually, I can think of a handful of times when Spider-Man has used his webshooters as just plain old Peter Parker, though he usually avoids doing so for secret ID purposes. In all cases, he did it surreptitiously (eg. a thin webline in a darkened room when no one else could see properly, causing a fleeing gunman to trip). Also, it usually takes him a second to flip the triger mechanism into place (normally folded back inside his sleeves, but with the whole webshooter often worn to facilitate quick costume changes). So, IMHO, the webshooters would not be OIHID, just casual use of them as Peter Parker would conflict with his Soc Lim: Secret ID. Of course, now that he's got organic webshooters and no secret ID, I suspect all bets are off...

Re: Character: Daredevil (rough draft) I'd tend to agree with bwdemon on the speed thing: as a strict translation of this era daredevil. I'd say the attributes are pretty decent. I'm comfortable with his STR being 20, though - he's pretty dang strong, though any "special training, no powers" kind of guy would beat him in an arm wrestling match if strength was his schtick. Kingpin, for comparison, I think would be about 25 STR (maybe 30) - enough that he's got a significant edge over DD (and a slight edge over pretty much any no-powers STR schtick guy), but not an absolutely overwhelming advantage. I seem to recall some Marvel stats saying DD could lift about 500 lbs, but I realize that may not be a reasonable assessment, considering how well other "official" stats are often recieved here... I'd say "mainstream Marvel continuity" DD (for lack of any better term) would definitely have a higher DEX and SPD, though - enough that Spider-Man doesn't make him look stupid, anyway. Maybe 26-28 and 6-7, respectively. For benchmarking purposes - when you hear people talk about "who would win in a fight: Bats or DD?" (eg. in Wizard magazine), Bats is pretty much a clear winner, but DD is given a slight edge in agility and acrobatics (I'd tend to agree, but feel free to disagree). As far as I'm concerned, there's nobody in the MU without superpowers (or super-soldier serums) that has a better DEX than Daredevil. None that I've ever seen, anyhoo - but that's neither here nor there. As Greywind basically said, Miller was doing things his way, writing the stories he wanted to - which might mean his DD didn't jive with "mainstream" DD. (Ahem) Susano - had you figured out what all his sensory powers are? It's all blank on the sheet you posted - I wasn't sure if it was a glitch.

Re: [storytime] Birth of RAVEN Some dang good writin'. After reading it, only one phrase comes to mind: "Be afraid. Be very afraid."

Re: Space Canine Patrol Agency Sweet aunt Petunia! I nearly peed myself after checking out that link...

Re: The "Classic" Elements The classic "guy" elements: beer meat fire bewbs beer + meat + fire + bewbs = grunts of approval.

Re: Looking for story input... Death Tribble: Actually, the former "Bloodbath" is being hunted by his old supervillain team - though I figured he covered his tracks well enough that it'll be a few sessions before we have to deal with them. Being presumed dead and changing his look and style helped that rationalization, and they may not know it's him at first. Gotta make PC #1 sweat a bit, and give the other players the chance to get all buddy-buddy with him before they find out he is/was a cold-blooded killer... Robyn: Man! Your players must be mighty paranoid by now! Seriously, though - that's a fair bit of fuel for the future. All sorts of things to keep the players on their toes later! prodigyduck: Actually, that would work out well. I'm trying hard to make sure that all the other heroes in town don't overshadow the PCs, even if I'm just dropping names from time to time. Your suggestion would be a great way to put some bounce in their stride (and a bit of fear), knowing they are the big guns for the time being... Ozmike: A great idea to get PC #2 and #3 involved, I must say - and very good incentive to want to join up with PC #1 and NPC #1. Safety in numbers (not to mention that it's safer with a pair who know something about the enemy and have a secret, fortified underground base). Thanks to everybody - these really have been some useful ideas you've thrown my way. (that doesn't mean stop! If anyone else has any cool ideas, I'm more than happy to hear them!) I'll need to figure out how to rep the lot of you (assuming I'm able, it doesn't look like it just yet...) Wait! Never mind, the noob's got it now...

Re: Looking for story input... Great stuff so far! Lord Liaden: While I actually had a backstory for NPC #1 involving Hornet (with some slightly boosted science skills and stats), in a King Cobra-like situation where he was creating his own cadre of arthropod-based superagents under VIPER's supervision, this would really add a lot of depth - I'm definitely going to try to work some of that in! Robyn: Ooooohoohooo... That's downright insidious! The whole cortex bomb thing is a little too serious for my style (at the moment, maybe later ) but the rest is gold! Keep 'em comin!

Hey, folks! I'm in the middle of running a Champions game, and while I'm not totally tapped out for ideas at this point, I'd figured I'd pick all of your magnificent brains for some ideas as to what to do - somehow my own plot ideas feel a little flat... Okay, here's the story so far in a nutshell... Campaign world: Straight-up CU in Millenium City. No real curveballs, save one: Mentalla is reformed, and spends a great deal of time looking for the spark of human decency in supervillains and trying to bring it out (by hook or by crook - mind control is great that way...) PC #1: Really the focus of the campaign so far. He's a former supervillan (a real nasty one, too) who was given a choice by a powerful psionicist (Mentalla): develop the tiny vestige of good still within you and fight on the side of the angels, or get your butt whomped. He reluctantly chose option one. Generally does the right thing, but is a real jerk in the process - his personality is based largely on TV's "House". Powerset: basically a jedi. TK, energy blades, danger sense, etc. Noone knows his former villain ID - which is good. I'll put it this way - his old name was "Bloodbath". Eeep. NPC #1: Straight man to PC #1. Has the attitude of your typical Silver Age hero - saving cats in trees, waving to the kiddies and telling them to eat their vegetables, chivalric, etc. As he was raised/created by VIPER (though his conscience kept him from doing anything really nasty) and has a somewhat inhuman appearance, he's very concerned with the public's perception of him (he's extremely worried about being percieved as anything other than a true-blue hero). Gets very frustrated by PC #1's snarky comments and dismissive attitude towards civilians, and I play him as being on edge most of the time. Powerset: a very obvious Spidey homage with extra arms. Yeah, cheesy, I know... While NPC #1 is having fits, it's actually been a lot of fun to play the interaction between these two. PC #2 and #3: two graduate students who gained powers in a freak accident involving the creation of a artificial black hole - #2 became a density-altering brick, #3 became a flying energy projector. Both decided to use their new powers to fight injustice and protect the innocent. Not too much else to say about them yet - they've only just joined in, and aren't even "on the team yet", though they did help stop a GRAB heist with PC #1 and NPC #1 (by virtue of being in the right place at the right time), at which point they were given a communicator "in case they ever needed help". Story at the moment: PC #1 and NPC #1 go out for munchies, and (having taken a page from one of the plot seeds in one of the books) intercept a black-clad adventurer with a bird motif fleeing a bevy of VIPER agents. Obviously Nighthawk, he nearly escapes, but is gunned down as our characters arrive. After some bait-and switch action and a spontaneous trip to the dump by PC # 1 (an escape in a garbage truck after covering the others' escape), Nighthawk is tended to at the secret underground base. After regaining consciousness, it seems that he managed to escape an ambush, and the rest of the Champions are in VIPER's clutches (at the very least!) My dilemma is this: I can't really come up with an interesting plan for the next session. I definitely want to do something more inspired than "bust into local VIPER base and free captured heroes" (though that'd be okay as a part of the plan). Basically, I'm not stuck, but I can't come up with a cool hook at the moment. This is VIPER's first appearance in my game, and I want the PC's to take them seriously! I'll gladly provide more detail if needed, but I figured this was long-winded enough. Any suggestions would be great - thanks in advance for your time! (Be gentle - it's my first thread started! )

Re: Soliciting Ideas - I don't know if they exist in your universe, but perhaps there's the potential for Earth to get caught in the crossfire between the Skrulls and the Kree; and if that works, you could probably find some way to get the Shi'ar empire or the Starjammers involved...

Re: Champions universe created by magic? My impression of the "magic background for superpowers" from CU is that magic subtly altered the laws of physics and probability - so that magic is not the actual direct source of (most) superpowers, but opens the door for those sources. Sort of a one-time thing - so at least in any game I ran, a superhero entering an anti-magic field could still fly. My take on it, anyway.

Re: "Why'd you yell FIRE! when you fell into the chocolate?" Actually, the lethal dose of chocolate for a human might be a lot higher than 5 pounds, as chocolate is significantly more toxic to dogs than people (Never give a dog chocolate). I'd think you'd be more likely to throw up before you could eat enough to do you any lasting harm!

Re: Comic Book Physics Basically, my games stay pretty comic-booky physics-wise. We always err on the side of "cool" or "fun", as long as it doesn't feel completely wrong for the style of game we're playing (usually pretty four-color anyway). If anything, I have to watch myself sometimes to make sure that players can't get away with too much when the game rules are less forgiving than what I think makes sense (ie. you have to pay for that with points - no freebies if you're going to be doing this fairly often, even though your abilities would cover that in real life)! just touching on the capes thing in particular - if a character in a game I ran was a speedster with a cape, I certainly wouldn't want to stomp on his fun. Just because it seems kind of strange based on my tastes is no reason to give him a hard time (especially over something that's generally just an esthetic concern anyway).

Re: X-Men "Elseworld" game I'd love to hear your take on Doc Ock (and how he became an Avenger, much less a hero) - not exactly the truth + justice kind of guy in normal continuity! The thought intrigues me...

Re: Character: Dough Boy Reminds me a lot of "The Breadmaster" from The Tick - only he uses his awesome pastry powers for good. He looks fun to play - hopefully in a campaign with a less-than-serious GM!

Re: "Thing ring, do your thing!" Sweet merciful crap, that FF cartoon was bad! Here in Canada, on our equivalent of Cartoon Network (Teletoon), that show was broadcast for a few months a couple of years back. I nearly peed myself between the instances in which I felt like vomiting - it was usually painfully bad, but sometimes it became hilariously bad. I remember the episode with Magneto fairly well: For some reason, Magneto decides he's got to show up the FF. So, he drives to the Baxter building - in a wheelless car that looks like a Yugo, levitating with his magnetic powers. Stopping on the street directly in front of the Baxter building, Magneto sees a "no parking" sign. The master of magnetism is infuriated! In his blind rage, he uses his awesome mutant abilities to pull the sign off the lamppost and crumple it slightly. Entering the Baxter building, Magneto decides to use the elevator to reach his hated foes who he has never met. Another man enters the elevator. To show the other passenger who's boss, Magneto removes his watch using his magnetic powers, dangling it in front of him; and makes the elevator move up - without pushing any buttons! GASP! "It's like the elevator is obeying his every command!" Magneto fights the FF for a while. He's mighty powerful, as evidenced by his display on the elevator, and the FF is on the ropes - but, all of a sudden, Reed pulls a gun on Magneto. Magneto, amazed at the audacity of his supposedly intelligent foe, tries to use his powers to destroy it or tear it out of Reed's hands - but somehow, his powers seem to have failed him, and the gun stays put! So, naturally, Magneto gives up and stops trying to fight. The cops show up, and he saunters into the paddywagon in cuffs. Turns out, using his awesome intellect, Reed whittled a realistic gun out of wood. Yeah, you heard me right - I couldn't make this stuff up. Whittled it. Out of a block of wood. Not "threw together some gun-like thingamajig out of space-age plastics', not "fabricated a perfect replica out of ustable molecules using some wierd thing in his lab"; he whittled it. If every episode was that funny, I think it would have been a smash hit - but most episodes seemed to be just plain awful, as opposed to ridiculous.

Re: Vancouver Island City I think it would be quite appropriate for Bamfield to be the home of an obvious Nightcrawler homage - n'est ce pas?

Re: An A-team for the 21st Century Ben Browder or Jim Carrey as Murdock? Either would be pretty amusing... A few years ago, when I was still living at my parent's place (and we had satellite), I had a hankerin' to paint minatures one weekend. Basically painted all day, every day for 2 1/2 days. I like having the TV or radio on as sort of background noise, something to occupy my conscious mind somewhat while I plug away, so I was searching for something good on - what I found was an A-Team marathon. Every episode. Back-to-back. I must have seen about 40 hours of A-team. I dreamed I was Murdock for a week. I found my dreams far more entertaining than the show - I don't recall Murdock having superpowers and fighting zombie furniture.

Re: Battletech Mecha First Loves, Favourites, and just plain silly. My favorite light mech: Tarantula. Wicked mobility - though I tended to swap out the SRM 2's for a couple more med. lasers. Followed very closely by the spiders (I've got about four minis of each). Not just a name thing (though it satisfied my arachnophile tendencies to no end) - I love mechs with mobility, and I love quad mechs too - so the Tarantula was a natural choice. Plus, I think it looks cool. Favorite medium: ProbablyBlackhawk or Blackhawk-KU off the top of my head - there might be other contenders. I love energy weapons for not having to worry about ammo (just fire all you want, as long as heat is ok) - and none had more than these two! Medium lasers/ER med lasers out the wazoo, and jumping to boot. Favorite heavy: Tough call. None really jump out at me, though I like the look of the old Black Knight. Needs a major refit to be any good in a fight, though - at least by 2060-ish standards. Favorite Assault: Thunder Hawk, hands down. I lean towards energy weapons in my own builds, but I have a soft spot for gauss rifles. 15 damage at stupid range? Sign me up! (wait - you say this thing has three, and max armour? Drooool...) overall, I much prefer using fast, jump-capable light mechs - a challenge, to be sure, but I excel at hit-and-run combat in Battletech. My personal favorite munchkin build: a 30-ton quad mech that moved 10/15/10, with pulse lasers. Unhittable on the mixed forest maps - every piece of cover was just far enough apart to get the maximum movement modifier to hit. I regularly destroyed mechs 3 times my size with nary a scratch (of course, this beastie could only take 2 scratches before being reduced to a pile of rubble, but that's beside the point...) My philosophy for homebrew mechs: Light mechs suck at being tough. Heavy/Assaults suck at being mobile. Stick with the strong points ( eg. the unfortunately named Champion).

Re: Vancouver Island City Bamfield Marine Station, located on the west coast of Vancouver island in the tiny town of Bamfield, is a dang fine institution as it is - probably Canada's premire marine biological facility. Perhaps the core of a big city in a superpowered universe?

Re: Six-Armed Ginsu Cuisinart I've done similar things with characters. The way I did it basically involved purchasing Rapid fire, Two-weapon fighting, and several Penalty skill levels (cheaper than a bunch of separate CSL's, and more suited to what you want to do) that applied to canceling out the penalty inherent in making extra attacks past the first two with the extra arms. Been a while since I did it, but I'm pretty sure that's all I had to do, and I remember having pored over the rules for hours making sure I wasn't missing any technicalites. I didn't bother dealing with the one miss=all misses afterwards mess - seemed too potentially expensive. Hope I wasn;t too late to post my thoughts on this one - it's a subject I'd liek feedback on too!

Re: No damage from falling Yeah, I didn't know the actual technical details behind the NC leaping example I brought up, I just kind of assumed that if you could survive the drop from the height you travel at your absolute maximum jump, that you'd be able to survive a fall from similar distances (assuming you were prepared, made a Breakfall/Acrobatics roll, etc.). It's not like you actually accelerate/decelerate over the course of a jump - it's at the takeoff/landing that you do such things. So someone using NC leaping might need to take a couple of shorter jumps to burn off momentum safely after that big drop (to follow the technical aspects of proper NC acceleration/deceleration, it would seem Superleapers tend to be rather bouncy), but IMHO, handling drops from X height under circumstance A is close enough to handling drops from X height under circumstance B. To me, the feel of it would be pretty wonky if the GM said: "ok - so you can jump 30" straight up when you focus on doing nothing else. But jumping down off of something is completely different - so you take the full falling damage." "But - assuming, of course, that I make a roll for the proper control on the way down, why should this be any different? If anything, it's simpler to jump off of something - practically no forward momentum at all, less chance to trip or something. And if no fall over 30" generates extra velocity due to hitting terminal velocity, why couldn't I jump off the top of a really tall building - I'll hit with the same velocity, and have more time to adjust on the way down?" "Nope. Won't work." "Ok - assuming that's true (which I still argue) - I know from my own personal experience that I can jump off of something MUCH higher than I can actually jump up to. My vertical is what - like two feet? Yet I can jump off a 9-foot balcony onto concrete (and I have, more than once), and assuming I land correctly, am perfectly fine. Considering my character's standing high jump is over half that 30" distance, shouldn't that at least reduce the potential damage?" "Nope. Full damage." Arrg. Actually had the exact same argument in a GURPS game with my GM - different rules, of course - but the same principles apply. Had a similar argument with a Gm YEARS ago (when I was about 14) with my GM when I was leaping from a crashing plane about 50 feet up at about 70 mph, with an unconscious pilot in my arms. My character could leap at speeds at least triple that, at double the height, and had a 40 or so STR, 6 arms, and a DEX of 30 or so - so I assumed the danger would be fairly minimal. My GM decided "noone could survive that fall" or some such thing, and reduced my INT to 6 as a result of the anavoidable brain damage upon landing. Either I'm incredibly obnoxious as a player and need to be knocked down a peg or two, or I have a knack for attracting GM's who are a-holes in superhero games. My two cents, anyway. Do with them what you will.

Re: No damage from falling To use the Superleap method, wouldn't you still only need 30" of Superleap, since you could use noncombat movement? You'd take a hit on DCV as you "braced for impact", but wouldn't that be sufficient? If that was ok, wouldn't a lot less Superleap be effective too, as long as you bought extra noncombat multiples? Eg. 15" superleap, x4 NC multiple would equal potential vertical leaps of 30" at 1/2 DCV. Cheaper than 60" of superleap, if all you care about is resisting falls, and still useful for getting around...

Re: "Why'd you yell FIRE! when you fell into the chocolate?" Hah! Takes me back... "I fell in a vat of chocolate...I fell in a vat of chocolate..." Just about wore that tape out when I was 12. (Ahem) anyway, I imagine Kafka, my super-fast and agile character who looks like a humanoid cockroach and is constantly munching on something sweet and sugary (partially due to a very high metabolism, and partially because he just loves the stuff) would be in heaven! "Dang! I'm totally stuck! Oh well - only one way to get out! (hee hee!) (munch, munch, munch, munch, munch...) 12 hours later... "Oooooooog... So full... but... so... tasty... (munch) Oooooog... (munch) Oooooog... 24 hours later... "OOOOooooh... My stomach hurts... Stupid chocolate! Why did I eat so much? This is all your fault! Ohh... How could I stay mad at you? (munch, munch, munch) 2 weeks later... "Hey Kafka! We finally made a solvent that can cut through this stuff! One minute more and you'll be out! "NOOOOOOOOOOO! We're meant to be together! Can't you see this is all I ever wanted? YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME!!" Of course, if he did want out, Kafka could just eat enough that he'd need to moult, and pull himself out of the chocolate as he shed his old exoskeleton. Mighty tricky, delicate work; and very time consuming - but I've seen plenty of philodromid crab spiders do the same on sticky traps at work. It's like if someone grabs your jacket and won't let go - you take off the jacket! I imagine some reptilian superheroes could do the same, assuming they could last long enough while trapped in the goo and were close enough to the edge of the vat or a ladder or something. For that matter, any hero with a full-body costume, powered armour, etc. might be able to make a similar attempt - a Contortionist roll with SERIOUS penalties might be in order in some cases. Said hero would be then in the buff, or at least devoid of his or her armour, but at least free!

Re: If You Had To Play a Marvel Character… I think it goes without saying who my first choice would be... (and second, and third...) Seriously, though - Spider-man really sets the shining standard against which all other superheroes are based (for me). I really have a hard time creating Champs characters (for myself anyway) without clinging, super agility, some level of scientific expertise, and super speed... Second choice? Tough call. Assuming Miguel O'Hara isn't an option, maybe Quicksilver - I'm a huge fan of speedsters too. Playing out the frustration of living your entire life in the equivalent of a bank line could be fun. I know a fair bit about Daredevil, too - so I could at least take a stab at playing him in character accurately (plus Matt's pretty cool in his own right).